By Sonny Jones
ELIZABETHTOWN — The first half belonged to East Bladen. It was enough for the Eagles to barely hang on and remain undefeated in Southeastern Athletic Conference play.
Zamar Lewis scored his 10 points in the second quarter and collected 16 rebounds for the game Friday night as East Bladen edged Fairmont 55-52 in a boys’ basketball game.
The Eagles went on a 16-3 scoring run in the opening four minutes of the second quarter for a 26-17 lead and built it to 34-21 at halftime following a pair of Lewis buckets inside.
“The first half was almost perfect,” East Bladen coach Aking Elting said. “We shared the ball, ran the offense, and rebounded the ball.”
The Eagles built much of their first half lead without leading scorer Malcolm Bolden, who sat out until it was into the second quarter for disciplinary reasons.
The second half belonged to Fairmont. The Golden Tornadoes scored the final 11 points of the third quarter to tie it at 40-all.
“The second half we just kind of fell apart,” Elting said.
The Eagles had to look no further than the free throw line for not being able to pull away from Fairmont. For the game, East Bladen made only 11 of 35 free throw attempts, including 5 of 20 in the fourth quarter.
“11 of 35,” Elting said, shaking his head. “You’re not going to win games going 11 of 35.”
The Eagles did manage to win, although a 3-point attempt by Fairmont’s Naishon Davis rimmed out with less than 10 seconds remaining. After East Bladen’s Jacob Nixon missed a pair of free throws with five seconds remaining, Fairmont missed a 3-point attempt at the buzzer.
Fairmont committed 33 fouls and had four players foul out. Xavier Johnson scored 15 points to lead the Golden Tornadoes, who are 2-3 in SAC-7 play and 4-11 overall.
Nixon led East Bladen with 12 points and had five assists. Bolden came off the bench to score 11 points.
East Bladen is 12-2 overall and 4-0 in SAC-7 play. The Eagles are scheduled to play at Red Springs on Tuesday. The Red Devils are tied for second place with St. Pauls at 3-1 in the conference standings.
Fairmont 14 7 19 12 — 52
East Bladen 10 24 6 15 — 55
FAIRMONT (52) — Gabriel Washington 5, Xavier Johnson 15, Tyreke Thompson 8, Landon Cummings, Issac McKellar 8, Naishon Davis, Ty’rus Morris 6, Deborian Powell, Damajah McRae 6, Josiah Billings 4, Jordan Lester, Jalik Brown.
EAST BLADEN (55) — Dominick Collins 8, Malcolm Bolden 11, Malaki Monroe 6, Lee Barnes, Yontee Dobson 8, Jacob Nixon 12, Chris Harding, Zamar Lewis 10, Peyton Tatum, Rodney Lacewell.
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